(Author note: I'm terribly sorry for not uploading for some time. Life, and your stubborn "different era" dad would make you busy for an indefinite amount of time. Anyways, I'm back and I hope you guys will like this chapter. More love to 00! Also while you review, let me know if I should make chapters longer, let's say 5-7k words per chapter or keep it like this should any readers don't have much time to read longer chapters. Enjoy.)
Disclaimer: All references and characters used don't belong to me. All rights goes to Sunrise and Idea Factory.
"Exia, Setsuna F. Seiei, eliminating target!"
The GN Drive revs up, more particles spew out of it. Exia (it's still Setsuna, but in his current form, it'll be better to call him Exia) dashes towards the Fenrir, bearing it's claws at him. Both attacks collide but the Gundam had more strength and momentum, he successfully forced the monster back.
He spins around and uses the GN-Sword to cut the wolf's torso, it howls in pain as light fragment-like pieces fly off. It pounces at him but he backed up with the blade folding back underneath. He points at the wolf with the black handle and pink energy beams fired out of the barrel, they disperse after impacting the wolf but not without damaging the beast.
"Time to end this." the eyes flashes another time, the sword snaps into place as he charges at the Fenrir. It raises it's claws, then in a split second, it was decapitated by Exia. It tries to bite his head, but he ducks below the fangs, spins around to get behind it.
The GN Sword immediately starts to vibrate, glowing almost and slowly cuts through the monster in half. The Fenrir howls before exploding into codes as Exia flies a few feet away from the explosion and halting with the feet digging into the ground.
"Target eliminated." he says to himself and the blade folds back underneath. Suddenly, the Drive slowly stopped emitting GN Particles, Exia falls onto his knees. "Setsuna!" everyone rushed towards the Gundam. Slowly, Exia shines until it changes back to Setsuna's human body with GN Particles flying off of him. "Setsuna! Are you okay?" Nepgear asks the Innovator.
"Did...did you saw?... I became... Gundam." was what he muttered before he collapses face first into the dirt, everyone kept calling his name.
Planeptune's Bassilicom, few hours later
Setsuna slowly opens his eyes, rays of light blinded him for a moment before his retinas adjusted. He's facing the ceiling of his room, fluorescent lights on the purple pink paint. He tries to get up but felt something on his leg weighing him down. He sees Nepgear sleeping with her hands folded and her head resting on them. She slowly opens her eyes to see the Gundam Meister looking back at her. She jolts up to see him awake.
"Setsuna! Your okay!" she says while lifting herself up from the bedside. "What happened?" he groggily asks the CPU Candidate. "We carried you back. Oh! You transformed into something I've never seen before and killed the boss. You called it something too, it was..." she explains but the last part was intervened by Setsuna.
"Exia." he says softly, like it was very close to him. "Yeah, that. Was that the name of your Gundam?" she asks with high interest. "My first one that is." "First one? Does that mean you have more?" Nepgear was trying to suppress her fangirl side since he came to not too long.
"Correct. I piloted Exia during my first few years as a Gundam Meister, then the 00-Raiser when we went up against the A-Laws and Ribbons' Innovators. Finally, 00-Qan[T] to communicate with the ELS. The Full Saber is just an additional attachment." he recalls all the experiences during his days on Earth, in his dimension.
A knock on the door was heard, it turns out to be IF, Compa and Histore. "Setsuna, your up." the Guild Agent had a hint of relief in her tone. "We were so worried about you, Set-Set." Compa says worryingly. "Thanks...Set-Set?" the Innovator was kinda weirded out by the nickname the nurse-in-training gave him. "She's not that great at remembering most names, so she gives nicknames." Nepgear explains to him, who was still disbelieving that someone of Compa's age wouldn't be able to memorize the names of others.
"Pardon me, but there was a communication cut-off in Virtua Forest, where your party was heading out for a quest. Did something happen?" the little Oracle asks. "Yeah, Setsuna transformed into a Gundam!" Nepgear bursts out, shocking Setsuna. What further shocked him was that Nepgear had recorded the battle on her N-Gear, in clear resolution. "R-really? How did it happen?" Histore was intrigued by the appearance and fighting style of Exia. "I'm not sure how it happened specifically." he pressed his hand on his forehead with his fingers running through his hair.
"But what does the cut-off have to do with it?" IF repeats the question. "The solar furnaces emit GN Particles, used to power our Gundams' weaponry and movement. It however, has a side-effect similar to a solar flare, which disrubts communications within the area. Devices without the right equipment to resist the particles will be rendered useless." he explains roughly.
"Solar flare?" Compa tilts her head in confusion. 'Right, this isn't Earth.' he recalls. The door flew open and the other Meisters came rushing into the room. "Setsuna!" they called. It was like a family visiting a member recovering from illness, except no gifts of any kind.
"How did you freakin' do that, Setsuna?" Lockon asks. "More accurately, what caused it to. Clearly Setsuna doesn't know either." Tieria kept his composure with his arms folded. "We were nearly done for until it happened." Allelujiah mentions. This was a new experience for the Meisters, nothing in their training prepared them for it. "Perhaps it was triggered by emotions." Histore suggests, the Krugis man perks up. "Emotions? How is that possible?" "I honestly can't tell. It is merely a theory." she responds with the same curiosity.
"Maybe it has something to do with our Gundams disappearing. Maybe their, within us or something?" Marie sounded like she's having a hard time believing it too. They looked at each other with questioning looks. "It's out of this world, yet it's possible. But I'm not sure if it'll work for all of us, even I was surprised." Setsuna got out of the covers. "Set-Set, you need to rest more." Compa insists. "It's okay, thank you for caring." he smiles lightly.
"Let's have lunch first before we decide what to do next about ASIC." IF suggests while walking out of the room along with Setsuna. "Sure, I'm getting hungry too." Nepgear says with her hand on her stomach, the other Meisters followed too.
"Set-Set..." Lockon teases the Innovator which he responds by giving a cold hard glare at the Irish man, Lyle laughs while Allelujiah was holding his stomach.
Somewhere
"What?! The CPU Candidate escaped from Gamindustri Graveyard? How?"
"Alright, alright, boss. I'll take care of it."
Planeptune
"So what is the plan?" Lockon rests on the sofa with Setsuna and Tieria alongside him, Allelujiah and Marie stood behind them. "Each nation, along with the goddesses, have mascots that protect their respective nations passively. If we find them, they can assist us in defeating ASIC. However, they were not heard from for quite some time, so they have to be searched." Histore explains. "How do we find something if no one knew they exist?" Tieria asks in his usual monotone voice.
"All we can do is ask around for information or we dive into dungeons and hope for the best." IF suggests with a troubled look. "The former will be difficult since by now, most people don't know they exist. And the latter will have to rely on Lady Luck." Lockon was slightly irritated with the troublesome methods, honestly, why things can't be simple he thought. "Lady Luck?" Compa asks curiously. "It's an Earth saying." he says with Compa answering with a cute 'Oooh!'
"We'll do both in teams to minimize time consumption. IF, Lockon, Allelujiah and Marie can gather information from the public and the media. The rest of us will search for dungeons in hope to come across a mascot." Setsuna says and the others agree.
"Actually, I'll go dungeon diving with you guys. Your gonna need an experienced agent on the field, I can call some of my associates in helping us gather info." she says. "Very well then. I'll switch places with you." Tieria suggests and she accepts. "Be safe, everyone." Histore says as the group sets off.
Ground level of the Bassilicom
"Where should we look first?" Nepgear asks IF. "I think we can go back to Virtua Forest, there could be something there." she suggests with her sleeve covered hand on her chin. "The area is pretty big." Compa adds. "It's a start, let's head out." Setsuna says and they nod, leaving the complex first.
"Well, what about us?" Allelujiah asks his group. "I think I'll try searching the web to see if I find anything." Tieria asked Histore permission to access the terminals in the building. "All right. We're heading out then. Good luck." Lockon, Allelujiah and Marie made their way out of the Bassilicom.
"Now,..." Tieria stood in front of a computer screen, he takes off his glasses and engages his qbw, his eyes shone in brilliant gold. "let's see what this world has in store." multiple websites of articles, news reports and documents starts popping up and moving on to the next at a very fast rate.
"Th-this is..."
Lockon, Allelujiah, Marie
"So what? Do we just ask anyone or do we have to find someone specific who knows about the mascot?" Allelujiah asks with Marie just as lost. "Hold on. IF gave me some contacts of her informants before we left." Lockon took out his communication device and sent out a few messages. He soon got a response. "Okay. One of her friends responded, she says we can meet at the Guild and discuss with her."
They walked along the pavement and Allelujiah sees a girl with light green hair and in a black hoodie jacket with big mouse ears on the hood. "And people were giving us looks." he says to himself as the girl was at a distance, then disappeared into the crowd.
"What is it, Allelujiah?" Marie asks her everybody-presumed-and-true-boyfriend. "Huh? It's nothing, Marie." he responds.
Setsuna, IF, Compa and Nepgear
The team trekked their way into a dungeon, they fought their way through wave after wave of strange monsters as they progressed. Living cubes that shuffles itself and had a pair of eyes in between the space inside, a brown bird like creature, walking mushrooms like the flower monsters from before and deformed looking humans with reflective rectangular glasses.
"This world is getting stranger by the minute." Setsuna said to himself. They eventually arrived at a groove like area with platforms connected to other platforms. "Something's happening to the monsters." IF pointed out. Some of the monsters are phasing in and out, then they turned dark and let out a loud roar.
"Their going viral!" Compa exclaims. "Viral?" Setsuna didn't understand what it meant. "Because of ASIC, the Deity of Sin's influence can affect monsters, making them more rampant and dangerous." IF explains to the Meister. 'Things are getting more random.' he thought to himself. "Their coming." Nepgear warned them as the viral monsters were heading straight towards them.
Planeptune Bassilicom
Searching through the media, Tieria Erde stood still like a statue to the staffs nearby. In his mind, he was viewing large amounts of articles and documents regarding the Hyperdimension, the world he and his team travelled to.
'Something doesn't add up in this file.' he says mentally with his qbw. The file he was looking was regarding the CPUs in their need to gather Shares. By gaining faith from the people, they develop games and go questing to maintain their power.
'Not what I pictured the method of gaining faith.' he deadpans in his mind, he continues going through the file. They competed against each other for Shares, leading to duels, a war also escalated, the Console War. Later, they resolved it and made a peace treaty, then came ASIC and their pirating which resulted in the massive decline of Shares towards the goddesses.
'So conflict can arise from this.' "Ah. Tieria." he looks up to see the Oracle herself, Histore. "Histore-san." he quickly puts back his glasses on, his irises returns to their original state. "Is there something you need?" he asks. "Yes, I do have something on my mind." "Fire away." he says.
"The other CPU Candidates from the other nations, we'll need their assistance if we're going to save the goddesses." she says with a firm expression. "There are others like Nepgear out there?" Tieria looked surprised to hear that. "Yes. Would you inform Nepgear and the others when they return?" she asks. "Roger." he responds with Histore giving a nod.
'His response when I greeted him, did he found something unsettling?' she thought to herself.
Lockon, Allelujiah and Marie
They made their way to the Guild, they saw a girl with similar clothing as IF's, but she had slick long black hair. Allelujiah walks up to the girl. "Excuse me, are you Otome?" he asked with her responding, "Yeah. I'm Otome, one of IF's friends." she bows her head a little.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Allelujiah Haptism." "Marie Parfacy, nice to meet you." "Lockon Stratos." he says with a gun sign and an eye closed. "Haro! Haro!" the two Haros bouncing on the pavement.
"*giggle* It's nice to meet you all too. Those two are really cute." she said while looking at the Haros, they continue to bounce. "Let's go inside. Don't want to talk under the blazing sun, now do we?"
After roughly explaining about the Meisters
"Wow. Who would've thought I'd be talking to people from another dimension." she says excitingly. "Please keep this to yourself. We don't want to draw more attention than we need." Allelujiah requested with a hint of anxiety in it. "My lips are sealed." she winked, Marie caught that but didn't speak about it.
"So, what about the mascot's location?" Lockon asked. "I heard that there was one around, somewhere deep within the dungeons." she said with an index finger up. "That's good, Setsuna and the others are handling that."
Dungeon
"Haaaa!" IF brings down her Katars onto a viral mushroom monster, destroying it. "That took longer than expected." Nepgear was trying to catch her breath with Compa on her side healing her injuries. "Stay on guard. We're not sure if these creatures will plan an ambush." Setsuna lean against the wall while looking around the corner.
"There we go. All better." Compa huffs in content as Nepgear's wounds (or Health Points, HP as they call it.) were healed. "Thank you, Compa. Let's press on." Nepgear tries to stand up with her beam sword to stand up. "Are you sure you're fine?" Setsuna asks the lilac girl. "Y-yes, I'm doing well."
After trekking through the dungeon, they heard something in the distance, they closed in and saw someone in a black hoodie jacket with mouse ears on the hood and holding a bat. Something was glowing in front of that person. "Who is that?" Nepgear look towards where the unknown person was standing. The person turns around and sees them.
She had grey skin, green hair with pointy ears and red eyes. She wore a bra with a heart broken in half, one red and the other yellow. The same half hearts on the jacket and grey baggy pants and black boots. "Huh? Who the hell are you guys?" she had a rude tone to her voice. "We should be asking you that as well." IF retorts while slowly readying her weapons.
"Oh I see. Your here for the mascot. Well too bad, cause ASIC's best henchmen, Linda is here to destroy it." she stated her motive aloud. "Henchmen? You look more like an Underling." Linda deadpans for a moment. "Henchmen is too high of a position for someone like her." Setsuna too roasts. "She's definitely an Underling." same as Nepgear. "Miss Underling is really an Underling." and Compa topping it off.
"Uh! Underling this, Underling that! You guys are really pissing me off! Your gonna pay for it!" she snaps as she raises her bat. "Look out!" Setsuna warns the others as they baked off away from the blunt weapon. "She may be an Underling, but she's here to destroy the mascot. We have to stop her." If dashes foward, her Katars and Underling's bat clashes into each other. But she was being pushed back as the bat slowly inched closer to IF's face. "IF!" she heard Setsuna yelled out her name and jumped backwards.
Gunfire was heard as the Meister put some well placed shots at Underling. But she didn't have any wounds, like she only felt the force of impact from the bullets. "What the?" he's having that look like when he saw a Ribbons look-alike ELS before the invasion. Of course, Underling couldn't see that because Setsuna had his helmet visor block his face.
"You punks are gonna pay for making fun of me!" she charged at them, then someone blocked her bat. "Nepgear!" she stopped they green haired girl's attack with her beam sword. "Setsuna. You have to transform into a Gundam." IF asked, but not loud enough for Underling to hear. He nodded while looking back at her. "But not here. The enemy doesn't know we have Gundam on our side. We have to take advantage of that." he ran into a safe distance where the stalemate couldn't be heard.
"Oh, looks like your friend has abandoned you. That'll show you not to mess with ASIC!" Underling mocked as the blue figure fade from her field of vision. "No! He's not giving up on us! He wouldn't, and neither will I!" she used the hilt of her sword to break the tie and backed away.
Setsuna
"There has to be some way to activate my powers." he tried to imagine Exia before him. Then something clicked in his mind. 'Histore said something about emotions.' he recalled what the book fairy said when he regained consciousness. He remembered that when Nepgear was about to be killed by the Fenrir, he felt he needed to become stronger.
To protect her and everyone else, he had to fight, to eradicate the source of the twisted distortion. To embody the symbol of the end of war and conflict. Gundam...
"I am Gundam!"
Nepgear
The ASIC grunt slowly walked towards them, with his club on her shoulder. "We can't lose. I need to save my sister." Nepgear muttered while Compa was trying her best to heal her wounds as fast as she can. "Time to end you, CPU Candidate!" as Underling raised her club, a pink beam blasted at the ground between the two. She backed off, surprised by the sudden attack. "Backup?"
The Planeptunians looked at where the shot came from, they saw a white and blue figure flying/falling with a trail of green light towards the grey skinned girl. It was a Gundam, Exia. "Setsuna." the lilac girl had a small teardrop at the corner of her eye. The MS had the shield raised and the blaster aimed at Underling. He fired another shot, making her jump back further away from Nepgear and the others.
The Gundam landed with a loud thud, he looked back at the trio. "Nepgear! Stay back while Compa recovers you. I'll hold her off." he turned his head back fowards, facing the grunt. "No! I'm going to fight with you, Setsuna!" she fought against the pain in her body. "Nepgear..." "I'm a CPU Candidate, I have a responsibility to protect the people of Gamindustri."
"Then your gonna need a boost." IF grabbed the lilac girl's arms and spun her around. "I'll cover fire." Exia discarded the shield that dispersed into particles as it hit the floor. He pulled out a beam saber with his left hand. The GN Drive reved up and he flew straight towards Underling. Who was still surprised by the appearance of the MS.
"Gear, don't blab out what I'm going to do here." the Guild Agent said with her face closing in on the lilac girl.
He swung the beam saber vertically, but she dodged it just in time. He swung it again, but she dodged that too. 'Damnit, she's faster that I thought.' Exia retracted the GN Sword's blade and aimed the blaster at her, but then an unidentified projectile, an energy beam, shot at her instead. Exia turned around and saw Nepgear, but she's entirety different.
She was wearing a skin tight white suit that had a small opening on her chest area with purpling linings. She had long white sleeve gloves and matching stockings. Her gamepad hairclip was replace with a round hairclip with a black circle inside with a white line spitting it. She had two mechanical parts floating behind her and disc like objects projecting light purple colored wings. Her hair took on a bit more pink and her irises were bluish with power sybols inside.
"Nepgear?" the white and blue MS asked. "Yes, Set-" "Exia." he intervened to prevent Underling from knowing who he was currently. "Oh right, Exia. I'm in my HDD mode, where I used the power of Shares from the Sharicite to go into my Goddess form. I'm now Purple Sister." he was admittedly baffled by her sudden change. She looked bright as light, she had a powerful presence that is almost... godlike? He never thought he would phrase something or someone with that word.
"How did you unlock your HDD form anyway?" he asked which caused her to be at a loss of words. She looked back at IF, who was giving her a cold hard stare with a bit of red in her cheeks. "It's nothing. Nothing at all." she assured the Gundam, he has a bit suspicious about it, how why she didn't used her powers up till now.
"What the hell?! A CPU Candidate and a talking human sized robot?! How is this a fair fight?!" the ASIC member ranted out loud. "Let's do this. We have a common enemy in front of us." she said as she called out her weapon. It was a white sword with lilac colored neon blade edge and other small features on it. It also had a barrel piece on it. It's a sword, but it's also a gun. A Gunblade. "Your right." he deactivated the beam saber and returned it to the shoulder piece. He swung the GN Sword and pointing it at Underling while holding it with both hand. His eyes flashed a brilliant green.
"Exia, prepared for target elimination." "Purple Sister, ready for battle!"